


Heart of Ice

by lea_hazel



Category: Seven Kingdoms: The Princess Problem (Visual Novel)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Complicated Relationships, Cynicism, Emotionally Repressed, F/M, Female Anti-Hero, Introspection, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-29
Updated: 2015-09-20
Packaged: 2018-04-14 03:56:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 3,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4549416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lea_hazel/pseuds/lea_hazel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Allegra of Revaire in several semi-connected snippets. Ambition, willpower and duplicity, whether for personal gain or for the greater good, if such a thing can exist.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I worked on this story in the time before 7KPP went into alpha. Because of the post-week-3 content and many other factors, I'm no longer pleased with the direction it takes and will not be continuing it. Allegra's story will continue to be developed in a separate fic.

Veil Isle was a dangerous place. Not that she hadn’t known, going in, how much she was risking. First, because she was bent and determined that her second marriage should improve upon the first and finally bring her nearer to the life she had always wanted. Later, her mother’s letter ensured that her family’s plight – still in debt even years after she thought she’d secured their future – was never far from her mind. However furious she was, Allegra did not have it within her to condemn her brothers and sisters to poverty in consequence of actions not their own.

Loftier ambitions had not crossed her mind, not initially. She had thought, honestly, that she could keep separate the affairs of Revaire and its crumbling regime from her own. As though the concerns of herself and her family were not onerous enough, without taking on the wight of the throne itself. The commoners were discontent; commoners had always been, and always would be discontented. Allegra herself had always been more than generous in seeing to Namaire and providing for the needs of her people. Her father, whatever his faults, had taught her as much.

What concern was it to her, indeed?

Once arrived at Veil Isle for the summit, her mind could not have changed more quickly. She’d always taken the rumors about the royal family as mere propaganda, and was dismayed to find that, if anything, they were tame compared to the reality. Having fought so hard to get to a place where she knew she could put her personal ambitions first and foremost, for the first and likely only time in her life, Baroness Allegra of Namaire was dismayed to discover her own nascent patriotic sentiment.

It was most inconvenient.


	2. Chapter 2

Allegra quite enjoyed being called dangerous. Not that she would be too eager to share that fact around, not in a social milieu where, for once, nine of ten people didn’t think she’d murdered her husband. Her first husband, that is to say. No, here she was merely Lady Allegra of Revaire, or sometimes even Kate. Having such a positive reputation among her peers was novel, and almost the most exciting thing about the summit, in her eyes.

But when Lord Clarmont called her dangerous, he meant something quite different. She supposed, when she was alone and had some brief time to think of it, that he didn’t know how right he was.

There was no getting anything past the matchmaker, she was certain. She’d be embarrassed even to try, and Allegra was not often embarrassed. No, there was nothing to it but to tell the truth, no matter how uncomfortable. Those eerie green eyes were bound to see right through her, just as easily as they did on the very first night of her arrival, when her hand hovered over the satchel on the tea-tray. Pensive, but of two minds. Her ambition couldn’t override her caution, and she could not bear to bring the shadow of suspicion that had stalked her in Revaire to this beautiful, almost serene island.

The choice proved both pragmatic and morally sound. In Vail Isle, she’d found, the two coincided far more frequently than they did in Revaire. The matchmaker was not wrong when she said that Allegra had much to learn before she could become a satisfactory delegate. She found herself itching to peel off her tarnished skin and unlearn a lifetime of bad habits. Lessons of self-preservation, hard-learned, which in Vail Isle could very well get her killed.

Unforeseen, the depth of her inadequacy was terrifying.


	3. Chapter 3

They met, as was their habit, for a very proper tea, quite above reproach. Just two courtiers discussing the affairs of the day. Whenever Lord Clarmont was about, even the simplest actions had a faint whiff of covertness about them. Allegra sipped her tea and tried to keep her mind from wandering down strange avenues. They were, in reality, as far from being spies as it was possible to be.

“I suppose I shall be planning another get-together, sometime soon,” she said.

“Will I be invited?” asked Lord Clarmont with a half-smile.

She batted her eyelashes. “But of course,” she said. “How uncouth it would be to leave you off the list. Speaking of which, do you have any plans of playing the host yourself, one of these evenings?”

“I wouldn’t dream of burdening your already overfull social calendar,” he replied.

“I am certain I could find time to make at least a brief apppearance,” said Allegra, “in any event designed to increase your own reputation. Especially as it is now so intimately tied to my own.”

He laughed.

Allegra frowned at him. “I do think you should consider it.”

“My skills at hosting, I’m afraid, are not quite up-to-par,” said Lord Clarmont.

“That is why I will be showing up,” said Allegra patiently, “to ensure that no matter what horrendous  _faux-pas_  you may commit – and I doubt there will be many – your get-together is sure to delight and amaze.”

“By virtue of having drawn the attention of the most popular lady on the island,” he said. “I see your point.”

She nodded decisively.


	4. Chapter 4

Every so often, their light and carefully cultivated conversations took a more serious turn. He would avoid it if he could, she knew, so Allegra made a point of drawing it out of him whenever she could. Whereas he would gladly listen to her speak of the most inane things for what seemed like hours. His father; her husband; his late younger sister; her unfortunate childhood. 

This was a fatally dangerous habit. She knew, for one thing, that he was far better than her at prying out people’s innermost secrets. Allegra might have prided herself on her skills in, not to mince words, manipulating people to her own ends, but she damn well knew when she was beat. Of course, to her that was only a cue to step up her game, and she had arrived at the summit well-equipped for gaming. And so she rose to the challenge, again and again, no matter how high the stakes. 

“Did you ever wonder?” she asked him one day, apropos of nothing, while they were walking along the cliffs.

She caught his hesitation. Yes, he took her meaning quite well, but it still took him a heartbeat longer to answer.

“About you?” he said. “Never.”

A heartbeat was an eternity in a game like theirs, and he was normally so quick on his feet. Allegra didn’t mind overmuch. It was only a test, after all, for his swift reaction and even more so for her own abilities. She was glad to know that she could still catch him by surprise, and judge his reactions with eyes clear of any haze of bias or want. He believed her now, she was almost certain of this.

It was growing dark and she suggested turning back towards the castle before they were missed, which turned into a good-natured discussion of Jasper and his stalwart butlery ire. He threatened to keep her out past dinnertime and she took up his line, all false outrage and flirtation. Once again they had rescued the conversation from the jaws of reality, and all was lightness and good cheer. Until he turned the tables on her in what could only be retribution.

“Yes, your ambition is legendary,” he said with a grin. “When the matchmaker informed me of your decision, I half-expected to receive an official contract, with endless sub-clauses against every possible equivocation.”

Allegra flashed a quick smile. “Ah, but did the matchmaker not tell you? Political marriages are not announced until the final week of the summit.”

“So no contract was necessary?” he said.

“I can draw one up,” she said, “if you’d like.”

He laughed. “Somehow I should have guessed you’d be proficient in contract law, Lady Allegra.”

She tilted her head and regarded him in the thinning afternoon light. “Fortunately, no such contract is needed,” she said, “for I’m afraid my legal expertise is a little rusty.”

“Because ours is a love match,” said Lord Clarmont.

“I’d hardly have agreed to it otherwise,” she said lightly, and turned toward the open garden gate. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I believe I have enough time before dinner to freshen up.”


	5. Chapter 5

Despite the tenor of their first meeting, political topics were never high on their conversational agenda. Clarmont seemed to think that Revaire’s problems could be readily set aside, if only for an evening. Allegra couldn’t in good conscience agree with this. No part of her life had prepared her for this possibility. Her skills were honed to be always on edge, ready for an ambush.

She had gained quite a reputation on the Isle, and she was certain he must have some clue of it, and yet he always seemed to avoid the issue. Even with a perfect conversational opening, he never rose to the bait, never asked her, directly or otherwise, _how much she really knew_. Truth be told, she knew very little – except that there was something to know. And any Revaire noblewoman worth her salt knew that.

He’d come very close to it, when he all but asked her why she didn’t pursue a political match.

Ambition had always been the trait that defined her reputation. In time, it came to a much deeper meaning than mere gossip and happenstance, but it was still only one cornerstone of her overarching plan. Everyone knew – or assumed – that she had a battle plan prepared for her place on the delegation, but no one knew what war she was intending to fight. Almost no one, that is. He could at the very least make an educated guess, she thought.

“I thought you said you wished to create history,” he said to her as they sat one evening in a quiet lounge, having a quiet tea and some quiet conversation.

“Did I not declare it in front of every delegate only two weeks ago?” she said, clucking her tongue. “Your memory is slipping. How tragic.”

He laughed, but didn’t relent to the subject change.

“I am quite particular,” she finally admitted. “I have very particular ideas on the matter.”

“About how this history should be written?” he asked.

“And how it should unfold,” she replied. “World history, and the history of Revaire.”

He was fidgeting slightly, his fingers busily turning a saucer, white and invisible against the white linen tablecloth. “Revaire’s current course,” he said delicately. “seems to be set in stone.”

“You and I know that this does not need to be the case.”

“You’re speaking quite dangerous things,” he said.

She smiled icily. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you? History is a very risky endeavor.”

“I confess to having avoided my history tutors, any chance I got,” he said.

“And yet.”

“And yet we are all a part of the mechanism that moves history forward, even down to the smallest cog.”

“This,” said Allegra, “is very true. I, for one, have no intention of turning to the machinations of someone else’s engine.”

Clarmont smiled. “And that, Lady Allegra, is what makes you so astonishing.”

“I don’t know,” she said, flicking at a strand of hair that had somehow escaped its pins, “it’s very difficult to be astonishing alone.”

“Is that why you came to the summit?” he asked again. “Looking for someone to astound the world alongside you?”

“Did I fail to astound you, my lord?” asked Allegra. “I thought I had made a better impression than that.”

He didn’t reply, and for a time the silence laid down a heavy blanket, wherein even the sound of a teaspoon clinking against fine china could be readily heard. She waited. This silence was of his making, and she had no intention of breaking it for him. If he wanted the conversation to flow to more favorable directions, he could redirect the river himself. Certainly he had more than enough conversational skill for it.

This proved to be her critical mistake.

She got up from her chair and stood by the window, watching the colors of sunset streak the sky. At length he came to join her, and his eyes fixed on the view out the window when he spoke again.

“Do you love me?” he asked.

“I love my country,” she replied, too quickly for it to be a lie.

He sat down heavily on the setee. “So there we have it.”

“I know that’s not what you wanted to hear,” she murmured.

“How am I to know, my lady,” he said, “when what you say so little resembles what you truly mean?”

Allegra turned back to the window. Outside the setting sun was painting a riot of colors in the sky, red and gold staining the clouds like the slide of satin over velvet. The sunsets on Vail Isle were like nothing she had seen before. She was certain she would never tire of them, would gladly watch them every evening for the duration of her stay.

“But all good things must come to an end,” she said aloud, “and soon I will be back with the dismal gray twilights of home.”

Now the red was bleeding out of the sunset, slowly making way for deepening shadows. With the light failing out of the sky, it marked a good time to move on to more civilized social pursuits. Allegra forced on her best smile and turned around, only to find that there was no one in the room but herself.


	6. Chapter 6

The year of the great snow is the last time she could remember being happy. He had hinted once that it was a dark time for him, and demurred that his mother’s death was an  _accident_. But they were both natives of the great kingdom of Revaire, and she knew exactly what that meant, as he’d expected her to, she was sure. It was one more thing they had in common, for all the good that did.

He could not rightly avoid her. The summit, the castle, the island itself were all far too small for two people to succeed at avoiding each other entirely. Besides which, he surely knew that to be seen disdaining her company would set a great many tongues wagging, and bring them both a great deal of the wrong kind of attention. He was too prudent for such, if not too considerate. But then again, Allegra herself was in no position to be making demands on his consideration, not when this abominable awkwardness between them was largely her own fault.

She could have spent the rest of the day kicking herself over it, if she felt inclined. How many lies had she told throughout her life? When had she ever spoken so carelessly? It was not like her to speak without thinking, and the incogruency would nag at her day and night, digging ugly nails into the edges of her mind, if she let it. But she refused to be prey to her own suspicions, not when there was so much left for her to accomplish.

Clarmont’s conspicuous absence from anywhere she could typically expect to find him was just one more problem, piled on top of every other puzzle she needed to solve. Allegra kept her ear to the wall and her lips sealed, waiting for the information she required to present itself to her. People gossip, servants and nobles alike. Even those well adept at keeping secrets could slip up now and then, and she usually needed only one such slip to gain a thread of information, something that could be pieced together into a meaningful whole.

If only there weren’t so much else going on. As it was, there were matters of life and death afoot and secrets swept under every rug. Allegra could not afford to put her wits wholy to solving the problem of Lord Clarmont, no matter how much it plagued her. There was simply too much else at stake.


	7. Chapter 7

Yet she could not let things go on as they had.

They said she’d led a hard life, and it had made her into a hard, cold woman. They said that she was manipulative, conniving, and scheming, and that she would die alone because of it. A lonely path, they called it. It made no difference. Allegra was quite used by now to people talking about her, whether behind her back or directly to her face. She may very well be cold, conniving, greedy, arrogant or all those other things she’d been called. Life had dealt her a hard hand, but she was damned if she would let it hold her back from reaching for what she deserved.

At court, it had seemed a simple choice, however difficult the execution might be. Allegra had spent three years in the Revaire court, building up her reputation over a foundation of barbed gossip and macabre fascination. For the first few weeks her presence had been in high demand, and she attended as many social functions as she could fit into her schedule. She knew the novelty of her notoriety would fade quickly and took pains to establish herself as a gracious hostess of impeccable taste. It took her three long years to attain the kind of status she needed to secure her position on the delegation.

Six long years of planning had gone into her presence here. From the moment she first heard of the summit, when she was still a young bride and not at liberty to make her position in life, she knew this would be her sole opportunity to be the author of her own fate. She arrived at the isle with six years of plans, preparations, schemes and manipulations under her belt, with the purpose of bettering her station in life. She had _not_  come to find a husband, and she had certainly had to intent of making a love match.

Plans, Allegra had come to know, could change.

The truth was, she had no idea what she could do to fix this, and it was petrifying. With mounting dread she realized her only option would be to ask for help.


	8. Chapter 8

Making friends had never been a thing that came easily to Allegra. 

She had not been a pleasant child, and she grew into an equally unpleasant girl, plain in her looks and lacking in all the airs and graces that girls her age could make use of. Mostly she got by on her wits. Her husband had said once that there was a quality to her that drew the eye, and that was the closest anyone had ever got to complimenting her looks. Sincerely, at least.

No, she had not come to the summit looking to make friends.  _Contacts_ , certainly. _Alliances_ , perhaps. Not friendships. Fortunately or not, she could not yet determine, Vail Isle had a curious magic that subverted her every intent and laid waste to her carefully cultivated plans. Now she had to judge which of her friends would be likeliest to come to her aid, and whether their advice was at all likely to be helpful.

Eventually Allegra had to admit that everyone she knew was either far too guileless to be so calculating as she needed, or else a compulsive liar. For a brief, gut-wrenching moment she seriously considered appealing to the matchmaker, before rapidly coming to her senses.


	9. Chapter 9

In the end, she asked Emmett. 

She wasn’t quite certain he could be called an authority on the matter, and it felt odd to be reaching out to advice to a man almost ten years younger than her. Not that she usually thought of her age in those terms. It only served to highlight how different her station in life was to all the other, much younger delegates. Not something she wished to dwell on, in all honesty. But he had good intentions, and she knew that he was smarter than he let on.

The young earl was exactly as forthcoming as anyone could expect. He listened to her expound upon her problems, in her usual roundabout fashion, with a grave expression. Despite herself she couldn’t help but be reminded of her younger brothers, whom she had not spoken to in years.

She talked herself dry, a thing which she could not remember having done recently, or at all. Emmett listened, mostly quietly, and asked very few questions. Once she was all out of words they sat silently together for a time while Allegra tried to school her frayed nerves.

“You won’t like it,” he finally said.

Allegra blinked and just barely resisted shaking her head to clear it. “What do you mean?”

“I mean,” said Emmett, “I think I know what you can do to mend things, but I’m not certain I should say so.”

“Am I really that unreasonable?” asked Allegra.

“Have you considered just telling him the truth?” he asked, tilting his head and regarding her with a cypher expression.

That gave her pause.

“I’m not certain what you mean,” she said.

Emmett smiled sadly. “Yes, that’s about what I thought you would say.”

“The truth about what?” she asked again. “How can I– I don’t  _have_  a truth to tell him.”

He shrugged. “Maybe that’s what he needs to hear.”

Allegra frowned, her mind racing in every direction and reaching nowhere. “I need to think about this.”

She got up and brushed at her skirts. Turned to leave. Paused. Turned back.

“Emmett,” she said. “Thank you for listening. You’re a good friend.”

That, at least, drew a smile out of him.


End file.
